“Complexities of legume genomes and epigenomes: implications for crop improvement,” will be presented 4 p.m. Nov. 11 by Scott Jackson, University of Georgia. A reception will be held at 3:30 p.m. The event is at Beadle Center and is open to the public.
Legumes are an important part of the agricultural ecosystem playing a role in the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen and providing a rich source of protein for consumption. As with most plants, there have been recurring instances of polyploidy in the legumes that has resulted in soybean (Glycine max) having nearly 75 percent of its genes present in more than one copy.
Jackson recently sequenced a closely related species, Phaseolus vulgaris (common bean) that does not share the most recent polyploid event and thus provides an evolutionary window into genome evolution within the legumes. ecent work on understanding the epigenetic programming, specifically DNA methylation marks, in soybean and common bean, is being used to find epialleles important for agronmic traits as well as to understand how duplicate genes are regulated.
The complete schedule of seminars may be found at http://biotech.unl.edu/
More details at: http://go.unl.edu/4pb